


Today and Forever

by vitaldose



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 3 - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 08:44:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitaldose/pseuds/vitaldose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara reunites with Ashley after she returns to the Normandy in Mass Effect 3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Today and Forever

The Normandy felt like home; well, like what home was suppose to feel like and that was enough for Liara.

At 109 she was still young. Most Asari weren't even thinking about a home at her age, but she felt that she'd lived a hundred Asari lifetimes just in the few years that she'd been acquainted with Commander Shepard and feared she was rushing right into her Matron stage. But her quest for knowledge –and general inability to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time– eased those fears with each passing moment.

Becoming the Shadow Broker had been, difficult. Not that it had been a hard decision, but the transition from recreational information trader to the most powerful broker in the systems had been a minor shock. She was surprised to find however that it wasn’t as complicated as she’d previously believed it would be and once the resources were at her finger tips she happily fell in to a routine.

She wondered how long she could keep it up; she had at most nine hundred years of her life left to live, would this line of work keep her satisfied until her Matriarch years? Would she ever have time for a family, for daughters, for lovers? And of course, would she even live to see those days come?

Passing by the CIC she nodded to Specialist Traynor, pausing just a moment as the doors to the elevator opened to take her down to the crew deck.

There was quite a bit of chatter amongst the crew about the recent attack on the Citadel by Cerberus. Questions like “Were they safe” and “were they really ready?” She was sure that once they left Citadel space, Shepard would address the crew and calm their fears, but at this moment she could see the doubt in their eyes.

It was the same doubt she’d seen in Ashley William’s eyes as she stared back at Shepard, the only block between the Commander and Udina. But the evidence was solid against the human councilmember; he was a traitor, rotten to his core and Ashley knew this, because although the doubt was there, Shepard’s eyes were clear.

She placed in a pass code EDI had allowed her to implement on the door to her room and awaited its opening.

Although she had faith that the Commander would not have shot Ashley in order to get to Udina, in those few seconds she felt a fear that not even the Reapers could create. In the fight against Saren, Ashley and Liara had grown close, beyond the normal comradery that working toward a singular goal normally created. Between the time of Shepard’s death almost three years previous to that moment on the Citadel, Liara deliberated quietly as to what her time with Lieutenant Commander Williams had meant.

Ashley had changed, just as she had, they were both harder more capable then they were when they first met and she feared their time apart had made their time together less, significant. She could have contacted her but something held her back, why had always been the issue. A matter that was resolved when she saw her in the Prothean Archives.

The doors flew open as something dinged on the data pad; she hadn’t looked up from it as they closed behind her “Glyph send these files to-“

“Dr. T’Soni you have a visitor.”

Liara looked up and turned toward the rest of the room. At the end past the monitors and the tech was a bed that had once been owned by Miranda Lawson and normally was free of any obstructions, just a white blanket atop white sheets. Today it all seemed blurry as a human shaped object atop it crossed its legs looking slightly irritated.

“You never called.”

“Goddess,”

“No just Ashley.”

“I-” she took a step back before beginning to walk slowly toward her, data pad now forgotten.

“It’s been three years and I’ve barely gotten a hello-“

“We spoke in the archives-“

“-you didn’t even visit while I was in the hospital.”

Liara stopped a few feet from Ashley and nervously rubbed her forehead “I feared, for the direction my life had turned that I was the last person you wanted to see.”

“You were way off there, I spent two years wondering where you were,” she looked at her hands “…if you were safe. There was no drifting apart with you Liara, you just disappeared.”

“Things became quite hectic.”

“I know you were keeping tabs on me,” she pulled out a book from her bag and lifted it up “nobody else in the universe could have found a poetry book from the 20th century in this type of shape and decide to just send it to some officer in the Terminus System. But that was a year ago, after that you fell off the map there were no signs of you anywhere, then Hackett informs me he has you working on a way to stop the Reapers. I thought at least then,” she sighed “maybe I held on to something that wasn’t there, or maybe I was just mourning the loss of a friend, but I missed you.”

Liara took a few steps forward, “I realize now that every reason that I rationalized for not contacting you was built around fear. Fear that I had just imagined our time together, fear that I had made something out of nothing. So I immersed myself in work, hoping that I could find a way to destroy the Reapers so you and the rest of the creation could have a future.”

“Sounds like a lot of excuses.”

“You could have contacted me; there _were_ two of us in this _Lieutenant Commander_ ” Liara replied somewhat indignantly.

Ashley’s face fell; it was obvious to both of them that this line of thought would get them nowhere; so they sat in silence afraid of what might be said. Eventually Liara heaved a sigh and placed herself next to Ashley on the bed with her face in her hands. She forced back the tears that had been pressuring her all day and lowered her hands to her side. What she didn’t expect was to feel Ashley’s hand take hers as she did. “Liara-“

She stopped her “You had no way of knowing where I was and even with Alliance resources at your disposal you wouldn’t have had much luck finding me. I fed false leads to them the entire time.” She squeezed her hand “Today on the citadel I-” she tried to pull her hand away but Ashley seemed to hold on tighter.

“Liara talk to me.”

“I realized the moment I saw you I couldn’t lose you, not again, Mars was hard enough. If there was even an off chance that you sided with Udina and Shepard had to-” her voice hitched in her throat.

“She wouldn’t have” Ashley replied firmly but the thought still lingered. Was that really true? Shepard had made harder decisions in the past. She wanted to think that she was untouchable but after Horizon, she wasn’t sure that she was a priority anymore.

“But there was still a chance!” Liara’s voice rose in pitch “I was a fool, goddess forgive me.”

“Hey, hey,” Ashley took her chin in her hands. It surprised her to find that Liara’s eyes seemed bluer. Maybe it was the lighting or the timing but they seemed so much more vibrant that before “There’s no need for the melodrama okay? She didn’t shoot me and I didn’t shoot her and I’m here.”

“I should have been with you; instead I was off gallivanting across the stars.”

“I can’t say that I’m not upset, because I am” her voice was even “but I’m not going to dwell on it and neither should you.” It was a new frame of mind for Ashley “This situation is not ideal, and okay it’s going to take a lot to get back what we had but I want to try.”

Liara looked up, her chin still in Ashley’s hand “You do?”

“If I didn’t I probably would have just avoided you for the rest of war.”

Liara laughed and slowly slipped in to Ashley’s arms, where she was welcomed with the most sincere of embraces. “This doesn’t seem real” she mused “I expected there to be more… exclamations.”

“I’ve had a long time to reflect on what I’d say” she replied “and when I really thought about it all I wanted to do was hold you again.” Ashley lifted Liara up on to her lap, cradling her in her arms “There’s no time to second guess, who knows if we’ll have a tomorrow.”

She looked up “Well, now there has to be.”

“A what?”

“A tomorrow.”

It was seconds before Liara felt the soft lines of Ashley’s lips on her own. Like a memory she’d forgotten, like the missing piece. She wrapped her arms around her neck and held on as if her life depended on it.

"Dr. T'Soni-"

Liara pulled back from Ashley suddenly embaressed as the intercom buzzed up above, it was Edi "I'm here."

"The Commander would like to see you... and Lieutenant Commander Williams."

"Edi-"

"If you were worried I was spying I was not."

Liara turned to Ashley with a smile and leaned her forehead against hers with a sigh.

"Duty calls" Ashley laughed.

"It would seem that way."


End file.
